PennDOT Brings Christmas to Head Start Students

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

Please enable Javascript to watch this video

SCRANTON -- Some PennDOT employees hit the road with Santa on Thursday and delivered gifts to children in Scranton, and Santa was able to arrive in style.

For the kids who attend the Head Start on Locust Street in west Scranton, Christmas came early, with lots of gifts and lots of smiles.

Almost three dozen children at Head Start received a toy from Santa Claus.

"It's really neat how the community came together to support our families here and our children and make sure they have a really happy Christmas together."

Each child's parents also got another gift and pajamas to wrap and give to their child on Christmas Day.

This holiday cheer was all made possible by PennDOT and its workers.

"Several employees from District 4 office in Dunmore got together and raised funds from the employees from the district office to give gifts to the Head Start students," said PennDOT safety press officer Michael Taluto.

Head Start teachers say this generosity means the world to the kids and their families, a showing of support without which Christmas may not have been possible at all.

"It's really neat how the community came together to support our families here and our children and make sure they have a really happy Christmas together," said Head Start teacher Emily Neuhausel.

"It means a lot. Some of the families might not have enough as other families, so it means a lot to them," said assistant Head Start teacher Cindy Johnson.

The fun wasn't over yet. Kids also got the chance to check out the big red engine Santa Claus came in on because his elves were busy preparing the sleigh for next week, of course.

And kids got to try on some firefighter gear, too, thanks to the Chinchilla Fire Department.

"They were very excited. They're all happy they got a very nice gift and it was very nice of PennDOT to do this for us," Johnson added.